Elizabeth Franz dead at age 84: Broadway icon and Gilmore Girls actress passes away after cancer battle

Tony-winning actress Elizabeth Franz, known for her role in the 1999 Broadway revival of Death of a Salesman, has died at the age of 84.

Franz passed away at her home in Woodbury, Connecticut, after a battle with cancer, said her husband, screenwriter Christopher Pelham. New York Times.

A powerhouse on stage, Franz earned Tony nominations in 1983 and 2002 for her standout roles as Kate Jerome (Matthew Broderick’s mother) in Neil Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs and as the youngest of four sisters in his revival of Morning’s at Seven, sharing the stage with Piper Laurie, Frances Sternhagen and Estelle Parsons.

She also won an Obie Award in 1980 for her role as the strict nun in Christopher Durang’s Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All to You.

Franz’s career extended to television, with memorable roles on Roseanne, Gilmore Girls, Law & Order, Cold Case, Dear John and Judging Amy.

Born and raised in Akron, Ohio, Elizabeth Jean Frankovitch moved to New York to pursue her acting dreams.

Her portrayal of Linda Loman in the 50th anniversary Broadway production of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman in 1999 truly cemented her legacy; this role earned her the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play.

His father, Joseph, worked in a tire factory, and his mother, Harriet, a part-time waitress, struggled with mental illness and would disappear for months.

“I remember holding on to my father and saying, ‘He’ll be back,'” Franz told The Times in 1999.

As he recalled in a 2004 interview What’s on StageShe quickly found her niche in New York City and made her mark both on Broadway and beyond.

‘Our neighbor had friends up there in the Bronx, and I stayed with them for the first year, then joined the digs with four other people,’ Franz explained.

He also shared: ‘I studied at the same place and at the same time as M. Emmet Walsh, with whom I was reunited in this production: at the American Academy of Dramatic Art in New York from 1961 to 1962.

‘After that we both went to summer stock in Dorset, Vermont and played once a week for 20 weeks.’

Her portrayal of Linda Loman in the 50th anniversary Broadway production of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman in 1999 truly cemented her legacy; this role earned her the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play.

Franz first played Linda at the Goodman Theater in Chicago before taking the character to Broadway in February 1999.

Her personal life included her first marriage to character actor Edward Binns, who died in 1990.

Born and raised in Akron, Ohio, Elizabeth Jean Frankovitch moved to New York to pursue her acting dreams.

She has appeared on daytime soaps such as As the World Turns and Another World and made memorable turns on prime time favorites such as Roseanne, The Equalizer, Sisters and Gilmore Girls (pictured).

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Miller praised her performance, saying that she “discovered in the role a strong underlying protectiveness that comes out as anger, and that has been washed away in the past, in every performance I know.”

In 2000, Franz brought the character Linda Loman to life in the TV adaptation of Death of a Salesman and earned an Emmy nomination for her performance.

Franz’s career extended far beyond the stage.

She has appeared on daytime soaps such as As the World Turns and Another World and made memorable turns on prime time favorites such as Roseanne, The Equalizer, Sisters and Gilmore Girls.

On the big screen, he appeared in the 1995 remake of Sabrina alongside Harrison Ford and Greg Kinnear.

Her personal life included her first marriage to character actor Edward Binns, who died in 1990.

The duo had shared the stage many times, playing Mary and James Tyrone Jr. in Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night at the Indiana Repertory Theater in 1975 and again in Miller’s A View from the Bridge in 1981 at the Berkshire Theater Festival.

Franz is survived by her husband Pelham and brother Joe.